CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY

The course is part of the historical-artistic teachings that complement the Master’s Degree in Economics and Management of Arts and Cultural Activities (EGArt). It therefore intends to provide students with the knowledge and comprehension of the main lines of (historical, theoretical, aesthetic, social, technical) development of photography in a constant comparison with the visual arts and image theories. Particular attention will be given to the role of photography as a contemporary medium to (re-)present, document, imagine, construct the world, and thus understand it, especially in relation to environmental challenges.

Excellent knowledge and understanding of the contemporary status and theory of images, as well as of the crucial relationship between photography and other visual arts and idioms. Students are expected to acquire adequate theoretical skills through a methodology, which, even in view of their future professional needs, begins with a careful interpretation of texts and images. This will help them understand the subject of study and build their own thought and critical judgment. Interaction and active participation during classes will be encouraged as much as possible to increase students’ cognitive abilities and both help them exercise expressive-communicative skills and develop specific terminological competence in a constant exchange with the professor and fellow students.

Advanced English, oral and written.

The course will specifically analyse the relationship between photography and the Anthropocene, with particular attention to photography as an artistic language, as well as a technical-scientific one, following four main historical-theoretical and thematic paths: (1) photography as a means of documentation, which has allowed but also deluded human beings into thinking they could record everything and thus control the planet (from the infinitely small to the infinitely large, from the natural to the artificial, from the human to the non-human...), often producing totalising atlases and visual archives, as well as forms of voyeurism, nostalgia and oppression (colonialism), but very little (environmental, social, political, cultural) understanding and criticism; (2) the way in which photography allows us to visualise the Anthropocene, not so much to aestheticise the great environmental changes that the climate crisis is causing, but rather to learn to look at the world we live in and imagine possible futures; (3) how photography has modified our relationship with nature and how the genre of landscape has changed; (4) the need to think about an ecology of photographic images, starting from the very ways in which they are produced, reused and put back into circulation.

The following are the reference texts (mandatory) to prepare for the exam – all collected in the “course pack” folder on Moodle:

(This book provides a historical-theoretical contextualisation of photography)

1. David Bate, “Photography: The Key Concepts”, Berg, Oxford and New York, 2009.

(These essays elaborate on the topics covered during the course and will be discussed in class)

2. Siobhan Angus, ‘Mining the History of Photography’, in Kevin Coleman and Daniel James (eds.), “Capitalism and the Camera: Essays on Photography and Extraction”, Verso, London and New York, 2021, pp. 125-163.
3. Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, ‘Toward the Abolition of Photography’s Imperial Rights’, Kevin Coleman and Daniel James (eds.), “Capitalism and the Camera: Essays on Photography and Extraction”, Verso, London and New York, 2021, pp. 70-124.
4. Nadia Bozak, ‘Digital images and the Cost of Resource Extraction’, in Boaz Levin, Esther Ruelfs, Tulga Beyerle (eds.), “Mining Photography: The Ecological Footprint of Image Production”, Spector Books, Leipzig, 2022, pp. 151-160 [Find the book in the library: BAUM 779.93637 MINEF].
5. Susanne Lange, ‘Traditions in Photographic History’, in “Bernd and Hilla Becher: Life and Work”, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA) and London, 2007, pp. 75-83.
6. Bruno Lessard, ‘After Nature: Aerial Photography in the Anthropocene’, in “Kritische Berichte”, vol. 45, no. 2 (2017), pp. 36-45.
7. Boaz Levin, Katrin Schönegg, ‘Image Ecology: An Introduction’, in Boaz Levin and Katrin Schönegg (eds.), “Image Ecology”, Spector Books, Leipzig, 2023, pp. 53-63.
8. Patricia Macdonald (ed.), ‘Surveying the Anthropocene’, in “Surveying the Anthropocene: Environment and Photography Now”, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2021, pp. 1-25 [Find the book in the library BAUM 779.93637 SURAE].
9. Nicholas Mirzoeff, ‘Visualizing the Anthropocene’, in “Public Culture”, vol. 26, no. 2 (April, 2014), pp. 213-232.
10. Gisela Parak, ‘Seeing the “Other”? Pictorial Practices of a Colonial Appropriation of Space’, in “International Journal for History, Culture and Memory”, vol. 11, nos. 1-4 (2023), pp. 1-14 [especially up to page 9].
11. Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, ‘Viaggio in Italia. Notes’, in Luigi Ghirri, Gianni Leone, Enzo Velati (eds.) “Viaggio in Italia”, Quodlibet, Macerata, 2024, pp. 11-15 (English translation) [1st ed. Il Quadrante, Alessandria, 1984].
12. Britt Salvesen, ‘New Topographics’, in “New Topographics”, Steidl, Göttingen, 2009, pp. 11-67.
13. Allan Sekula, ‘Dismantling Modernism, Reinventing Documentary (Notes on the Politics of Representation)’, in “The Massachusetts Review”, vol. 19, no. 4, Photography (Winter, 1978), pp. 859-883.

The exam consists solely of a written test with six questions. The test is passed if the student reaches sufficiency by answering at least four of the six questions accurately and comprehensively. The grade will be awarded on the basis of the correctness and completeness of the content, the relevance of the language used and the accuracy of the form.

written

The written test comprises six questions. Each question is worth a maximum of 5 marks, allocated as follows:

- 0 marks: insufficient or missing answer;
- 1-2 points: sufficient answer, but not totally correct or incomplete;
- 3-4 points: fair to good answer, depending on the degree of details and the correctness of the language;
- 5 marks: very good to excellent (with distinction) answer.

You achieve the maximum grade (30/30, with or without distinction) by answering all questions optimally.
A pass mark (18/30) is achieved by answering at least four out of six questions correctly and comprehensively.

The interpretative reading of theoretical texts and of images will be carried out in class as methodological exercise to facilitate learning. Some of the theoretical texts not included in the bibliography but discussed by the professor, as well as the images that will be projected as slides, will be available for students during the course on the online platform Moodle (for copyright reasons images and texts cannot be made available in any other way). Possible visits to exhibitions and lectures by other professors or experts in the field will be an integral part of the course – more information will be provided during classes.

Class attendance is recommended to all students.

Ca’ Foscari follows the Italian law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) for the support and accommodation services available to students with disabilities or specific learning disabilities. If you have either a motor, visual, hearing or another disability (Law 17/1999), or a specific learning disorder (Law 170/2010) and you require support (classroom assistance, technological aids for carrying out exams or personalised exams, accessible format material, note retrieval, specialist tutoring as study support, interpreters or other), please contact the Disability and DSA office disita@unive.it.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Climate change and energy" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development